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According to tropica.com it can be grown in low light and is an easy plant. Does anyone have experience growing echinodorus "ozelot" in low light (1.5 wpg) without CO2? What kind of coloration did it have? What kind of height did it acheieve? Any experience you can share about this plant would be appreciated.

Though I have no experience with E. ozelot, I've kept different types of sword plants in low light and they all tend to be a little bland compared to how they would look in higher light. They also grow a good deal slower as well.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Thanks for your input matt.

I can't believe that no one has any experience with this particular sword plant. I assumed that it was popular because it seems to be available at all of the online aquatic plant resources.

I chose it over other swords because the little information I've found seems to imply that despite its pretty colors it is less light-needy than other swords.

Guess I'll have to give it a go and see what happens. I'm planning to order my plants this week. Maybe I'll report back here when I see how the sword does in my specific tank conditions.

Bad time to post - over a beautiful holiday weekend in most parts of the US.

I have experience with e. ozelot but in a 3 wpg environment, no CO2 injection with onyx as substrate. pH is 7.8 with less than 20 ppm nitrates. Sword fert by underground tab.

Plant has readily sent out stalks for new plants. I would call them runners but these are stiff and upright with babies forming every 3 inches. Color is good.

I would expect slow growth and less color with lower light.

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Guess I'm being a little impatient. Silly me, forgetting that some people have lives I am in the U.S. and we are having a beautiful holiday weekend, yet here I sit, wasting away in front of the computer screen.

Anyway, thanks for responding to my inquiry.

I generally don't have a lot of luck with swords, but ozelot is one that has done fairly well for me. I just have it in 3-4 inches of small pebble gravel under 2 wpg with DIY CO2. I'm sure it would do fine without the CO2. It might get leggy under less light, but I think that could be quite attractive. You do want to make sure that your gravel is deep because they grow best when their roots have plenty of room, and a few substrate fertilizer tabs around the roots woul dbe very helpful if you're not using a rich substrate like florite, laterite, etc.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

My ozelot sword is probably the nicest plant in my tank. It's also HUGE. Probably 20 inches tall. Gorgeous plant. That's with CO2 injected, but I see no reason why it wouldn't grow decently (maybe not as fast, large/ full, but grow none the less) without CO2. IME it's less demanding than other swords.

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Back in the saddle!

Ive got three of them , there easy to grow , but they do need good fertilizer or the leaves will yellow and thin out. They need moderate light, most plant growth bulbs will be sufficient though. Theyre hardy too, often surviving fine with large amounts of the roots exposed.The roots on one of my plants must be a solid mass about 5 inches deep, with a spread of over 15 inches.

Occasionally I uproot mine to wash them ( fish poo does tend to get in the bases) and I check to make sure any heavily algaed leaves are pinched off near the base. I often remove six leaves at a time - mine are over 20 inches high and typically have about 12 leaves. If the plant is well fertilised they do seem to regrow leaves at a rate of about 4 a month, and the leaves are often bigger after a " pruning". Sometimes the leaves will rise 4 inches in a day. I think the main cause of death for this plant is probably the depth of the water- if the tips of the leaves protrude out of the water they die back in a couple of months, so I would say a tank minimum is 18 to 24 inches. I dont run co2 incidentally.


If anyone has any tips on how to get them to reproduce I would be grateful though- cuttings dont work and I never seem to get root spread or basal seperation.

Last edited by longhairedgit at 09-Sep-2005 22:34